Radial flow elastic fluid turbine or compressor



J. H. DORAN May 11, 1943.

RADIAL mow ELAST IC FLUIDQTURBINE 0R COMPRESSOR Filed June 10,

Ill/Ill Inventor: John H- Doran, v

l-hs Attorney.

Yatented May 11, 1943 RADIAL FLOW ELASTIC FLUID TURBINE R COMPRESSORJohn H. Doran, Scotia, N. Y., assignor to General Electric Company, acorporation of New York Application June 10, 1942, Serial No. 446,412

1 Claim. .(Cl. 253-165) The present invention relates to radial flowelastic fluid turbines or compressors including a plurality ofsuccessive rings of buckets or vanes with adjacent rings of bucketssecured to separate shafts rotating in opposite directions.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved construction ofradial flow turbines and compressors of the type above specified.

For a consideration of what I believe to be novel and my invention,attention is directed to the following description and the claimappended thereto in connection with the accompanying drawing. f

The single figure of the drawing illustrates radial flow compressorembodying my invention.

The arrangement comprises a casing ID with an inlet opening II securedto a rigid support l2 by a plurality of bolts 13. Two rotors l4 and 55are disposed within the casing. The rotor H has a side wall IS with aplurality of radially spaced rings of buckets ll rigidly supportedthereon. Each ring of buckets l'l comprises end rings I8, I 9 with vanesor bucket blades having end portions held between the axially spaced endrings l8, l9. The rotor l5 similarly has a side wall 2| located on theopposite side from that Y of the side wall I6 and a plurality ofradiallyspaced rings of buckets 22 alternating with the rings of buckets l1.

During operation, fluid, such as air, to be compressed is conducted fromthe inlet l l to the first ring of buckets or vanes H by a stationaryspider having guide vanes 23 with inner'ends secured to a hub 24 andouter ends fastened to a ring 25 held on the casing ill by bolts 26. Themedium vis directed from the guide vanes 23 to the bucket blades 20 byanother set of vanes 21 having outer ends secured to the disk l6 andinner ends secured to a hub 28. Oneend of the hub 28 is supported on thefirst mentioned hub 24 by ballbearings 29. The other end of the hub 28is secured to a shaft 30 rotatably supported on ballbearings 3|, 32 and33. The shaft 30 together with the hub 28 and the spider 21 constitute ameans for rotatably supporting the first rotor l4.

The disk 2| of the second rotor l5 has an innet portion secured to ahollow shaft 34 concentrically spaced from the shaft 30. The bore of thehollow shaft 34 acts as a support for the aforementioned bearings 3| and32/ The shaft 34 in turn is supported by ball-bearings 35 and 36. Theball-bearing 35 is held on the casing l0 while the ball-bearing 36 isheld on a housing 31'. The two shafts, the inner shaft 30 and the outerhollow shaft 34, according to my invention are sumer.

connected by a gearing. In the present example a beveled gear 38 isfastened to the inner shaft 30 and another beveled gear 39 is fastenedto the outer shaft 34. The gear 39 has a hollow shaft portion screwedonto a threaded end portion of th hollow shaft 34. are connected by athird beveled gear 40 with a shaft 4| rotatably supported on the housing31 and arranged perpendicular to the shaft 38, 39. The housing 31 formsa support for the aforementioned bearing 36 and in turn is supported bya ball-bearing 42 on a cylindrical extension or bracket 43 secured tothe housing It) by the bolts I3. Thus, the housing 31 is supported forrotation about the shafts 30, 34.

During operation of the arrangement as a compressor, air Or like mediumis forced or induced through the inlet ll of the casing, whence it isdirected by the stationary vanes 23 and the rotatable vanes 21 towardsthe impeller vanes 20 of the first compressor stage. The fluid is forcedradially outward and thereby compressed by the vanes 20. The fluiddischarged from the first stage vanes 20 is conducted into the secondstage or ring of vanes formed by the first ring of vanes of the secondrotor IS. The fluid is thus successively compressed in the successivestages formed by the two rotors until it is finally discharged from thelast stage formedby the second rotor l5 into a discharge scroll 44formed by the casing l0 and having a discharge conduit 45 for conductingthe compressed medium to a con- During such operation one of the shafts,in the present instance the shaft 30, is driven by a motor or poweragency. As long as the resistances to be overcome by the two rotors l4and I5 are substantially equal the two rotors rotate in oppositedirection with the same velocity and the beveled gear 40 merely acts asa means to connect the shaft 34 through the beveled gear 38 on the shaft30 to the power agency. If the two rotors require different input or,from another viewpoint, if the resistances to be overcome by themdifler, then the two rotors will operate at different speeds. Duringsuch operation the gear 4| rotates about its own axis and also about theaxis of the shafts 30, 34, that is, 1

the housing 31 rotates about the shafts 30, 34. With such arrangementthe compressor may be operated with high efficiency and economy.

This also applies during operation of the arrangement as an elasticfluid turbine. During such operation elastic fluid may be conducted tothe scroll 44 on its passage through the several stages towards theexhaust opening I I. The fluid The beveled gears 38, 39

causes rotation of the two rotors in opposite direction. The torque ofthe second rotor I! is transmitted through the gearing to the lefthandend of the inner shaft 30. The particular gearing as describedabove'permits operation of the two rotors at different speeds, moreparticularly at speeds at which each rotor attains its optimum I nowconsider to represent the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have itunderstood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that theinvention may be carried out by other means.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is: f

Radial flow elastic fluid turbine or compressor comprising a casing, tworotors each having a shaft for rotation in opposite directions disposedwithin the casing, one of the shafts concentrically surrounding theother shaft, and beveled gear means connecting the shafts and comprisinga first and a second beveled gear each secured to one of the rotorshafts and a third beveled gear meshing with the first and second gears,and means rotatable about the rotor shafts for supporting the thirdbeveled gear.

JOHN H. DORAN.

